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Chesham Town Council Events

• A calendar of events in Chesham

Chesham objects in other collections

• Have you spotted an object associated with Chesham in another museum? If so, we would love to know about it. Chiltern Toys had a factory making wooden and other toys in Waterside, Chesham until the outbreak of WWII. This Chiltern Toys bear is in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

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Object of the Month

Henry Chilton's Jar

Click on a photograph to enlarge it

Jo Lovell and eight year old Dylan were lucky enough to come across this stoneware jar made by Powell of Bristol. The jar bears the name of Chesham grocer and wine and spirit merchant Henry Chilton whose shop was at 17 High Street between around 1881 and 1907. The shop is no longer there and was replaced with a bank building in the 1930s (now the HSBC bank).

The photograph on the right is an enlargement of a photograph of Chesham High Street taken around 1900. It shows Henry Chilton's shop far right. The man standing outside the shop could be an assistant. He looks too young to be Henry, who would have been in his 60s, but it could be his son Sidney who was 30 and living at home in 1901. Jo and Dylan have kindly lent the jar to the museum so that it can be put on display.

House & Home

The development of housing in Chesham

7-13 Missenden Road. Photograph by Anne Crabbe.

This is the latest in our temporary exhibition series and has been researched and written by our team of volunteers. They have been looking into the history of some of Chesham's oldest and grandest houses (some sadly demolished years ago) as well as more modest dwellings.

The exhibition is themed - 'Ancient Estates and the Growth of Trade' delves into the history of the houses associated with Chesham's Medieval and Tudor manors and some of the older houses still standing in the town.

'18th Century Prosperity' looks at the houses of some of Chesham's wealthy 18th century businessmen.

'Industrial Expansion' investigates Victorian factory owners' houses and the development of Chesham 'New Town'.

The exhibition comes (more or less) up to date with a section about Council Housing and the Self-Build Project of the 1950s when a group of people got together to build their own houses during the post-WWII housing shortage. There is a short film to watch about the Self-Build Project.

The exhibition runs until September.

Faith in Chesham

Chesham is known for the 4 Bs - Boots, Beer, Brushes and Baptists. Two previous books called the 'Pubs of Chesham' and 'Chesham at Work' cover the stories of the first 3. Now a new book called 'Faith in Chesham' is being prepared to tell the story of the Baptists and the other faith communities of the town, that are so integral to Chesham's heritage. If you are interested in local history or family history this will be of interest.

Neil Rees and Rev Colin Cartwright are researching the story of Chesham's religious congregations. If you can help in any way with memories or photographs of religious life in Chesham or the villages around, please contact Neil on 01494 776457 or contact Chesham Museum using the Contact page. A series of talks on the different communities, is being given at the Museum.

Chesham at War

Chairman Lesley Perry is carrying out her own research on the men commemorated on the Chesham War Memorial and some that are not. Can you help? Find out more...

Click on the photograph to see the whole picture.